Related papers: Gravity heats the Universe
We investigate the importance of local gravity during preheating, the non-linear dynamics that may be responsible for starting the process of reheating the universe after inflation. We introduce three numerical methods that study a simple…
The process of reheating the universe after hybrid inflation is extremely violent. It proceeds through the nucleation and subsequent collision of large concentrations of energy density in bubble-like structures, which generate a significant…
A fundamental prediction of inflation is a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of gravitational wave. The features of such a signal provide extremely important information about the physics of the early universe. In this paper, we focus on…
This is the last of three papers on Conformal General Relativity (CGR), which ascribes inflation to a spontaneous breakdown of conformal symmetry, followed by a sudden energy transfer from geometry to matter identified as big bang. This…
The build-up of galaxies is regulated by a complex interplay between gravitational collapse, galaxy merging and feedback related to AGN and star formation. The energy released by these processes has to dissipate for gas to cool, condense,…
The hypothesis that the Universe underwent a period of exponential expansion at very early times has become the most popular theory of the early Universe. Not only does it solve some of the problems of standard big bang cosmology, but it…
When did the universe thermalize? In this talk I review the status of this issue and its importance in establishing the expected properties of dark matter, the growth of large-scale structure, and the viability of inflation models when…
We initiate a study of the gravitational-wave signatures of a phase transition that occurs as the Universe's temperature increases during reheating. The gravitational-wave signatures of such a heating phase transition are different from…
The emergence of time in the matter-gravity system is addressed within the context of the inflationary paradigm. A quantum minisuperspace-homogeneous minimally coupled inflaton system is studied with suitable initial conditions leading to…
We propose a model for cosmic inflation which is based on an effective description of strongly interacting, nonsupersymmetric matter within the framework of dynamical abelian projection and centerization. The underlying gauge symmetry is…
The production of a stochastic background of gravitational waves is a fundamental prediction of any cosmological inflationary model. The features of such a signal encode unique information about the physics of the Early Universe and beyond,…
Cosmic Inflation provides an attractive framework for understanding the early universe and the cosmic microwave background. It can readily involve energies close to the scale at which Quantum Gravity effects become important. General…
Thermal energy points toward a disordered, completely uniform state acting counter to gravity's tendency to generate order and structure through gravitational collapse. It is, therefore, expected to contribute to the stabilization of a…
We examine the thermodynamic state and cooling of the low-$z$ Circum-Galactic Medium (CGM) in five FIRE-2 galaxy formation simulations of Milky Way-mass galaxies. We find that the CGM in these simulations is generally multiphase and…
I present an overview of some of the recent advances in our understanding of the distribution and evolution of the ordinary, baryonic matter in the universe. Two observations that strongly suggest that most of the baryons seen at high…
We outline a scenario of galaxy formation in which the gas in galaxy-forming regions was preheated to high entropy by vigorous energy feedback associated with the formation of stars in old ellipticals and bulges and with AGN activity. Such…
Using a unified analytic model for quasars, galaxies, Lyman-alpha absorbers and the IGM, we obtain the redshift evolution of the temperature and the entropy of the gas and the corresponding cluster temperature - X-ray luminosity relation.…
I review the present status of the Cosmic Microwave Background, with some emphasis on the current and future implications for particle physics. Conclusions are: gravitational instability in a dark matter dominated universe grew today's…
The universe displays a three-dimensional pattern of hot and cold spots in the radiation remnant from the big bang. The global geometry of the universe can be revealed in the spatial distribution of these spots. In a topologically compact…
In the present days of modern cosmology it is assumed that the main ingredient to cosmic energy presently is vacuum energy with an energy density $\epsilon_\mathrm{vac}$ that is constant over the cosmic evolution. In this paper here we…